CACTUS FAMILY 543 



Montane rock-piles, 11,000 to 11,100 feet : White Mts. East to western Ne- 

 braska. Aug. 



Loc. — County Line Hill, White Mts., Jepson 7363 (the only California collection). 



Kefs. — Opuntia rhodantha Schum. Gesamtbeschreib. Kakt. 735 (1898) ; type from Colo- 

 rado, Pur pus; Parish in Jepson, Man. 657 (1925). 



13. 0. megacantha Salm-Dyck. Raxcheria Prickly Pear. Arboreous, with 

 a distinct trunk, 8 to 12 feet high, or a stout bush with ascending branches, 4 to 6 

 feet high ; joints thick, oblong, 6 to 18 inches long ; areoles 1 to 2 inches distant, the 

 glochids soon deciduous, spineless, or with a few brown spines, mostly near the 

 margins ; flowers large, yellow ; fruit ovoid, 3 to 5 inches long, with a broad flat 

 umbilicus, the flesh crisp, palatable ; seeds brownish. 



Dry flats, 5 to 1500 feet : coastal Southern California. Mexico. 



Field note. — Formerly, Opuntia megacantha was much cultivated for hedges and for fruit 

 at the California missions and ranches in the southern counties, about some of which, or about 

 their former sites, remnants yet persist. In places it is spontaneous, and is occasionally used in 

 ornamental cultivation. Both this species and the next were in cultivation in Mexico as fruit 

 trees long previous to the discovery of America, and exhibit a degree of variability comparable 

 to that of other fruits. 



Locs. — Santa Barbara, Parish; Red Hill, near Upland, Johnston; Santa Catalina Isl. (Field 

 Mus. Nat. Hist. Bot. 5:179) ; San Juan Capistrano, Saunders. 



Eefs. — Opuntia megacantha Salm-Dyck, Hort. Dyck. 363 (1834), type loc. Mexico; Parish 

 in Jepson, Man. 657 (1925). 



14. 0. ficus-indica Mill. Indian Fig. Similar to 0. megacantha in habit, size 

 and articulation ; spines usually more numerous, 1 to 3 in an areole, whitish, some- 

 what flattened, unequal, the longest 1 to II/2 inches long; flowers yellow or **red" ; 

 fruit ovoid, 2 to 3 inches long, the umbilicus deeply depressed, the flesh juicy, 

 edible. 



Dry flats, 5 to 1500 feet : long cultivated in coastal Southern California (as 

 well as anciently in Mexico), it is occasionally spontaneous. Nativity not known. 



Locs. — Mission Canon, Santa Barbara, Parish; San Gabriel Mission, Saunders. 



Eefs. — Opuntia ficus-indica Mill. Gard. Diet. ed. 8, no. 2 (1768) ; Parish in Jepson, Man. 

 657 (1925). Cactus ficus-indica L. Sp. PI. 468 (1753), type loc. "in America calidiora". 



15. 0. chlorotica Engelm. & Bigel. Golden Prickly Pear. Arborescent in 

 habit, 3 to 8 feet high, with a short and stout spiny trunk and ascending branches ; 

 joints 4 to 8 inches long, orbicular to ovoid or obovoid, light green ; areoles approxi- 

 mate, prominent, each bearing 3 to 6 unequal slender yellow spines, mostly re- 

 flexed, about 1 inch long; flowers yellow; fruit ll^ to 2 inches long, "purple with- 

 out, the flesh green, edible" ; seeds small. 



Stony slopes, 1000 to 5000 feet : ranges in or bordering the eastern Mohave 

 Desert and the Colorado Desert. East to Nevada and Arizona, south to Mexico 

 and northern Lower California. Not common or gregarious. 



Locs. — Ivanpah Mts., Parish; Providence Mts., Mum; QuaU Spr., Munz 5299; Kenworthy, 

 on the coastal drainage of San Jacinto Mts., Muns 5571 ; San Felipe, Parish 1423. 



Refs. — Opuntia chlorotica Engelm. & Bigel. Proc. Am. Acad. 3:291 (1856), type loc. 

 western Colorado River country, from the San Francisco Mts. to Mohave Creek [River], Bigelow ; 

 Pac. R. Rep. 4:38, pi. 6, figs. 1-3 (1856) ; Parish in Jepson, Man. 657 (1925). 0. curvospina 

 Griff. Bull. Torr. Club 43:88 (1916), type loc. betw. Nipton, e. Mohave Desert, Cal., and Search- 

 light, Nev., Griffiths 10,530. 



16. 0. occidentalis Engelm. & Bigel. Thicket Tuna. Stems several, erect 

 or spreading, branched, forming clumps 3 to 5 feet high; joints elongated-obovate, 

 6 to 12 inches long; areoles remote, prominent, each bearing 1 to 4 stout brown 

 spines % to 1 inch long; flowers lemon-yellow, 2 to 3 inches high; fruit obovoid, 

 about 1^ inches long, green, becoming tardily reddish, at length dry; seeds or- 

 bicular, prominently margined, % inch broad. 



